"Regional Governance" in England

authored by

Rainer Danielzyk, Gerald Wood

Abstract

Devolution in England has been high on New Labour's political agenda ever since the 1997 Labour Party Manifesto (the year of the landslide victory in the General Election). It was conceived of as a means to improve the overall functioning of public-sector activities on the regional level and as a way of making that involvement more democratically accountable. After the successful first "wave" of devolution to the Celtic Fringe, the North-East was chosen as the first region in England where a referendum would be held in order to fathom public support for elected Regional Assemblies and in order to subsequently establish such an Assembly, depending on the outcome of the referendum. The North East suffers particularly under recent economic restructuring with a decline in its traditional industries, a stagnant population growth and an equally stagnant gross national product. As it turned out, a vast majority (80 %) of the voters was against the proposal. The failure of the referendum can be seen as an indication of the many-faceted problems which the process of devolution in England is confronted with. However, this does not mean that issues of governance reform on the regional level in England are off the agenda now. It does send out the clear message, though, that a technocratically conceived form of decentralisation from "above" does not find sufficient public support.

External Organisation(s)

ILS - Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development
University of Münster

Type

Article

Journal

Geographische Rundschau

Volume

58

Pages

12-20

No. of pages

9

ISSN

0016-7460

Publication date

05.2006

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geography, Planning and Development, Water Science and Technology, General Energy, Atmospheric Science